Isaac NewtonQuarrelsome and quirky, a disheveled recluse who ate little, slept less, and yet had an iron constitution, Isaac Newton rose from a virtually illiterate family to become one of the towering intellects of science. Now, in this fast-paced, colorful biography, Gale E. Christianson paints an engaging portrait of Newton and the times in which he lived. We follow Newton from his childhood in rural England to his student days at Cambridge, where he devoured the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, and taught himself mathematics. There ensued two miraculous years at home in Woolsthorpe Manor, where he fled when plague threatened Cambridge, a remarkably fertile period when Newton formulated his theory of gravity, a new theory of light, and calculus--all by his twenty-fourth birthday. Christianson describes Newton's creation of the first working model of the reflecting telescope, which brought him to the attention of the Royal Society, and he illuminates the eighteen months of intense labor that resulted in his Principia, arguably the most important scientific work ever published. The book sheds light on Newton's later life as master of the mint in London, where he managed to convict and hang the arch criminal William Chaloner (a remarkable turn for a once reclusive scholar), and his presidency of the Royal Society, which he turned from a dilettante's club into an eminent scientific organization. Christianson also explores Newton's less savory side, including his long, bitter feud with Robert Hooke and the underhanded way that Newton established his priority in the invention of calculus and tarnished Liebniz's reputation. Newton was an authentic genius with all too human faults. This book captures both sides of this truly extraordinary man. |
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Page ix
Gale E. Christianson. Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius. Henri-Frédéric Amiel This page intentionally left blank P REFACE AT ONCE MORTAL i x CHAPTER TITLE.
Gale E. Christianson. Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius. Henri-Frédéric Amiel This page intentionally left blank P REFACE AT ONCE MORTAL i x CHAPTER TITLE.
Page x
Gale E. Christianson. This page intentionally left blank P REFACE AT ONCE MORTAL AND IMMORTAL, ISAAC NEWTON WAS.
Gale E. Christianson. This page intentionally left blank P REFACE AT ONCE MORTAL AND IMMORTAL, ISAAC NEWTON WAS.
Page xi
... once compared himself to a boy playing on a seashore, casting about for a few beautiful pebbles that he likened to his greatest discoveries. It is worth noting, however, that even this simple metaphoris misleading. While Newton's home ...
... once compared himself to a boy playing on a seashore, casting about for a few beautiful pebbles that he likened to his greatest discoveries. It is worth noting, however, that even this simple metaphoris misleading. While Newton's home ...
Page 2
... Once at Whitehall he ate a little bread and drank some wine. At two o'clock there was a break in the clouds. The crowd, kept at a distance by several rows of soldiers, could just make out figures passing rapidly behind the windows of ...
... Once at Whitehall he ate a little bread and drank some wine. At two o'clock there was a break in the clouds. The crowd, kept at a distance by several rows of soldiers, could just make out figures passing rapidly behind the windows of ...
Page 13
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Contents
1 | |
MY GREATER FRIEND | 12 |
OF GENIUS FIRE AND PLAGUE | 24 |
THE REVOLUTIONARY PROFESSOR | 34 |
KINDLING COAL | 43 |
THE ALCHEMIST | 53 |
A BOOK NOBODY UNDERSTANDS | 63 |
YOUR MOST UNFORTUNATE SERVANT | 77 |
MARK OF THE LION | 88 |
THE ROYAL SOCIETY | 101 |
WAR | 110 |
LIKE A BOY ON THE SEASHORE | 122 |
NOTES | 129 |
FURTHER READING | 135 |
INDEX | 141 |
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Common terms and phrases
alchemical ancient astronomer royal Barrow began body calculations Cambridge Catherine Catherine’s challenge Chaloner Christiaan Huygens claim coins Collins colors Colsterworth comets Conduitt death distance Earth Edmond Halley England experimentum crucis eyes Fatio Fellows fire Flamsteed Flamsteed’s force Galileo genius Grantham gravity Halley Halley’s Hannah head Hooke’s Huygens I.N. Corres Ibid Johann Bernoulli John John Flamsteed Keynes King King’s School knew later Leibniz letter light Lincolnshire lived Locke London Lucasian mathematical mathematician matter ment months moon motion move natural philosophers nature’s never Newton wrote notebook Oldenburg once optics orbit paper Pardies Pepys plague planets president Principia prism problem professor published pull reflecting telescope refracted reply Robert Hooke Royal Society Samuel Pepys scholar scientific secret Sir Isaac Newton society’s Stokes Street telescope theory things thought tion took Trinity College universe Wickins William Stukeley William Whiston Woolsthorpe young
Popular passages
Page 54 - Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake : Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog...
Page 59 - I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron ; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Page 128 - I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Page 72 - ... every other particle with a force proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Page 28 - After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some appletrees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation as when formerly the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.
Page 56 - What his aim might be I was not able to penetrate into, but his pains, his diligence at these set times made me think he aimed at something beyond the reach of human art and industry.
Page 26 - All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666, for in those days I was in the prime of my age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since.
Page 56 - He very rarely went to bed till two or three of the clock, sometimes not until five or six, lying about four or five hours, especially at spring and fall of the leaf, at which times he used to employ about six weeks in his elaboratory, the fire scarcely going out either night or day...
Page 31 - I deduced that the forces which keep the Planets in their Orbs must [be] reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the centers about which they revolve : and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the Moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth, and found them answer pretty nearly.